Campaign Update

Don’t allow banks to weaken cell phone robocalls rules!

We’re grateful for your overwhelming support for our #EndRobocalls campaign. Now, we want to harness your energy to deliver a strong message to the federal government: we don’t want robocalls on our cell phones!

Most companies love robocalls, because it’s an inexpensive way to deliver a sales message to you. Even though it’s absolutely prohibited, they do it all the time! For example, Kaiser Permanente recently settled a class action lawsuit with 864,000 consumers over this issue. They’ve been slapped with a $5.35 million penalty for autodialing former customers’ cells and bugging them to renew their coverage.

That’s why it’s so important to keep the Federal Communications Commission from weakening the tough laws that protect your cell from unwanted calls. Currently, the FCC prohibits anyone – even charities and political groups – from autodialing or sending a pre-recorded message to your cell phone for a non-emergency reason without your explicit permission.

But over the last few months, two banking groups, in separate petitions, asked the FCC to let banks robocall consumers without getting their permission first. This could lead the way to debt collection calls to your cellphone, and telemarketing pitches thinly disguised as “informational.”

As our friends at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) point out, if banks need to contact you for an important reason, they don’t need any new laws: they can get your permission to robocall you, pick up the phone and dial your number, or send you a letter.

There’s simply no reason to make it harder to hold back the avalanche of robocalls to your cell. The FCC may make a decision on this issue as early as this month. We’re going to deliver your signatures to them so that they know you won’t stand for this treatment. Sign here!

And, don’t forget to sign our petition to allow phone companies to automatically block robocalls before they get to you!

Do not allow bill collectors to call cell phones via robo callers. I am bombarded with robo calls from political parties, etc. on my land line and I am sick and tired of it. Robo calls should be outlawed.